The FM radio doesn't have the stylish radio tuner interface of the K3, but again it has more options, including showing RDS information about the station or genre. It finds stronger stations and the reception is also better. You can record from the radio or the internal microphone. The lowest quality level isn't quite as good as that of a handheld digital recorder - better for recording meetings than creating podcasts - but you could fit 100 hours of recordings on the T9. The built-in microphone is better than on many recording MP3 players and higher quality recordings are quite clear, though with some hiss. You can even play back at a faster or lower speed than normal to help you transcribe an interview or skip through sections that aren't relevant.

You'll want to use the Samsung Media Studio for transferring videos, which automatically transcodes to the right format and resolution: Samsung's SVI variant of MPEG4 at 208x176 using Xvid and LAME MP3. For copying music and images you can also use Windows Media Player, or just drag and drop files from Explorer. On the K3 you see the Music and Pictures folders, but on the T9 it's Music, Pictures, Playlists, Text and Video, as well as the folder of recordings you've made, so you can easily copy them to your PC. You can browse the same folders on the device with the Folder Explorer, so you can jump straight to an image by filename rather than thumbnail if you prefer. If you copy tracks that aren't in folders the player will organize them using ID3 tags, although just by artist, album, genre and playlist - none of the advanced ID3 options of the Trekstor Vibez, for instance.

Although the controls for the photo viewer are pretty much the same as those on the K3, the images are far better: clean and clear even if you haven't resized them (though large images take a noticeable time to load) and with accurate colours. Video playback is as good as you're going to get on a screen this size and perfectly watchable.

Again, the T9 delivered Samsung's claimed 30 hours of music playing and 6 hours of video, although using Bluetooth will cut this down slightly.

This is a pricier player than most, but then you get the FM radio and Bluetooth interface. The interface has its quirks, but if you use Bluetooth headphones you'll only touch the player to turn it on and connect. The sound quality is good, photos and video look good, and recording and browsing text files make the T9 useful as well as entertaining. If you're ever really bored there are simple games to play, and the 30 hour battery life means you can actually use all the features. The only thing missing is a memory card slot. Despite the price, we'd say the T9 is more than worth what you'll pay.